Protocol

Because Bular's authority was too low, he had no authority to make decisions. Therefore, whenever a dispute arose during negotiations, he had to consult his superiors.

In addition, the identification process in that control room was extremely complicated and time-consuming, and there were some things that even the Telo Race seemed unable to make decisions about, requiring further communication with higher-ups.

Therefore, although the final results were few, the process took a lot of time.

Secondly, the Telo Civilization and the Zerg signed some agreements outside the framework of the Alliance.

The Swarm's territory lies on the outermost edge of the Star Sea Alliance. The four star systems facing the Alliance — Sandstorm, Big Horn, White Grub, and Red Ant —either directly border the Alliance members' territories or are separated by one or two star systems. Overall, there are also a number of unclaimed star systems between the two sides.

The Telo Civilization's advantage lay in these unclaimed star systems. Although they were the dominant civilizations in the outer rings, not to mention the civilizations in the middle and inner rings, there were several civilizations in the outer rings that were comparable in size and strength to them.

Over the years, thanks to the instigation of the New Epoch Clan, the Trojans have made many enemies, but they have also gained many allies, such as several native civilizations that have been invited by other civilizations. These are the allies of the Telo Civilization, and they have formed a small the Alliance with the Telo Civilization as the main body.

While the unclaimed star systems outside the Swarm were unrelated to the Telo Civilization, they bordered its allies and had no other competitors. Their original plan was that the original civilizations, having conquered these star systems, would at least secure a decent share with the Telo Civilization's intervention.

But now the Zerg have suddenly appeared, developing to this extent in just a few hundred years. To be precise, it was only after the Swarm Network was upgraded again and the identities of the Chess Player were confirmed that the Swarm began to expand explosively, which is only a few decades ago.

In just a few decades, the four star systems of Sandstorm, Big Horn, White Grub, and Red Ant have been well-managed by the Swarm. While not impregnable, few civilizations would dare claim they could single-handedly challenge the military strength of a single Zerg star system in terms of the strength of their outer Swarm.

If the competition proceeded smoothly and fairly, those few native civilizations would be no match for the Zerg Swarm. At the Swarm's speed, they might extend their reach to those unclaimed star systems in another ten or twenty years. In that case, the plans that the Telo Civilization had meticulously crafted over hundreds of years would be rendered futile, which was unacceptable to the Telo Civilization.

Therefore, the Telo Civilization hoped that the Swarm would use Sandstorm, Big Horn, White Grub, and Red Ant to prevent it from continuing to expand inwards.

The Swarm was actually indifferent to this request. Moreover, Rowan himself wasn't particularly interested in expanding in that direction. There was a buffer zone between them and the Star Sea Alliance members, and it would take at least a hundred or even several hundred years for them to expand. Given their current level, colonizing other star systems would be extremely difficult for them.

The current situation is somewhat bizarre; the attitudes of the Epoch Clan and the other races all reek of conspiracy. Luo Rowan, however, appears somewhat passive due to a severe lack of intelligence. Of the more than two hundred civilizations in the Star Sea Alliance, Rowan currently only knows a few, and even those are not well understood. The relationships and characteristics between these civilizations are crucial information that urgently needs to be gathered.

Therefore, what the Swarm needs now is to reduce its presence. The Duoqi Civilization might not be able to do anything about it; the conflict has already arisen and is likely irreconcilable. However, given the size of the Duoqi Civilization, even if a war breaks out, it probably won't be too large. What the Swarm needs is to avoid a larger-scale conflict, so as not to become the focus of attention for many other civilizations.

The cooperation would also allow him to cultivate good relations with some civilizations, although such friendly relations are unreliable. What Rowan needs now is time. With time to buffer, Rowan can be more at ease in both gathering intelligence and formulating plans.

Moreover, abandoning the expansion into the inner circle is not without its benefits. The Telo Civilization will pay a price for it. In addition to some rare resources, the Telo Civilization will also provide a Quantum Communication Device and some related theories for the Swarm to study.

Although Quantum Communication Device are strictly controlled, they are merely mass-produced items for the Epoch Clan. As soon as the Swarm joins the Star Sea Alliance, they will be given at least five sets of these devices for communication within the Alliance. However, these sets of devices are closely monitored, and even the information they transmit may be intercepted. Most importantly, they cannot be disassembled for research.

The equipment provided by the Telo Civilization did not have this problem. Over the years, the Telo Civilization had purchased a lot of equipment from the Epoch Clan. Although each unit was under control, they had tried every means to lose a few units in a legitimate way.

The Telo Civilization has developed numerous sophisticated theories by dismantling and reconstructing these missing devices. Even so, each missing device is a precious treasure to them. Giving one away to the Swarm now, in their own view, represents a tremendous price to pay.

But in reality, this thing is dispensable for the Swarm, but having more technology is always better, and the Swarm also needs overt real-time communication methods to cover up the Swarm Network.

Rowan was quite pleased with the deal offered by the Telo Civilization. This arrangement created a false clue; if anyone later suspected the Swarm's communication methods, they could trace the deal through various means and arrive at a flawed conclusion. As for whether this would implicate the Telo Civilization, Rowan stated, "It was a deal after all, wasn't it?"

As for how much of the Swarm's own interests were sacrificed for this, Rowan felt it wasn't much. Because besides the Sandstorm, the Big Horn, the White Grub, and the Red Ant, the Swarm also had the Beihe Star System and the Black God on their side.

The Swarm territory is located on the outer side of the second spiral arm of the entire Vortex Galaxy. Continuing outwards, in addition to numerous unclaimed star systems that can be developed, one can even traverse the vast void region in the middle of the spiral arm to reach the third spiral arm, where there will be even more star systems.

Therefore, the Swarm's next development focus is on outward expansion, increasing its strategic depth, and strengthening its power. At the same time, it will secretly dispatch teams to the third cantilever to open a secondary mine.

Although the distance between the two cantilever arms is quite far, estimated by the Intellect to be over 6,000 light-years, the Swarm is now vastly different from what it used to be. Coupled with the advantages of the long-lived species, this distance is not a problem given enough time.

As long as the Swarm can have a 2000-year buffer, Rowan felt that he could even take on the entire Star Sea Technology Alliance head-on without any problem.

For a civilization venturing into the stars, 2000 years isn't a very long time, but Rowan estimated that the enemy wouldn't give the Swarm that much time.

Rowan Wen often lamented that if he hadn't slept in late and had woken up millions of years earlier, would the Epoch Clan have had any future?